Basal Plane Functionalization of Niobium Disulfide Nanosheets with Cyclopentadienyl Manganese(I) Dicarbonyl.

Basal plane-functionalized NbS 2 nanosheets were obtained using in situ photolysis to generate the coordinatively unsaturated organometallic fragment cyclopentadienyl manganese(I) dicarbonyl (CpMn(CO) 2 ). Under UV irradiation, a labile carbonyl ligand dissociates from the tricarbonyl complex, creating an open coordination site for bonding between the Mn atom and the electron-rich sulfur atoms on the surface of the NbS 2 nanosheets. In contrast, no reaction is observed with 2 H -MoS 2 nanosheets under the same reaction conditions. This difference in reactivity is consistent with the electronic structure calculations, which indicate stronger bonding of the organometallic fragment to electron-poor, metallic NbS 2 than to semiconducting, electron-rich MoS 2 . X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) were used to characterize the bonding between Mn and S atoms on the surface-functionalized nanosheets.